Letter: Don't abandon pursuit of justice

DE PERE - Make America great sounds good, but not if it means being the world’s bully. That was the standard in antiquity, and even now in Mr. Trump’s mind. Leaders in philosophy and religion said to deaf ears for millennia that a great nation’s citizens would be willing to live in true justice and peace fulfilling the needs of all.

The writers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution took a step in that direction. In the first document they listed the injustices of George III, which served as a guide, though negative, for the Bill of Rights in the new Constitution. One effect of the Constitution was the end of frequent wars between the colonies. The Civil War showed the need for amendments. Some lesser problems prompted further amendments. We haven’t achieved perfect justice, but have made progress in the last two centuries.

Increased war-making ability gives us inflation, increased debt, and less, not more, safety. Consider Ronald Reagan’s military build-up for “defense,” which George W. Bush then used to invade Iraq. We are still paying in dollars and lives. When the U.S. abandons the pursuit of justice to imitate the “great” empires of history, it, too, will perish.